


A World With You In It

by Thymelady



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Above and beyond all there is long and epic hugging, Because eff you show, F/M, Fix-it fic, Fluff, Forever, Friends to Lovers, Goddamn unicorns puking rainbows, I have written a coffee shop AU haven't I?, I'm just hurting so much OK, Reunion, Souls united always, and hugging, happiness, ichabbie - Freeform, in starbucks, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 06:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6504313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thymelady/pseuds/Thymelady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another dimension. Another chance. The two same souls. The two same people. Now and forever.</p><p>MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 3.18, FINALE OF SEASON 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A World With You In It

**Author's Note:**

> Crane cries a fair bit in the beginning of this ficlet. But not as much as I cried while writing this. 
> 
> Hang in there, fandom. Denial is a river in Egypt.

It was a dangerous idea to enter a gateway into another dimension. That was exactly why he did it, as people shouted behind him. 

Leaving the remaining members of the Mills family was a relief. They were wonderful people. But not the Mills he longed for and needed. 

Crane hadn't the foggiest idea of what to do next or how to come back. He didn't care. It didn't matter without the Lieutenant, he thought. He tried, but it just didn't matter.

Strange, then, that he found himself on the pavement outside of the first Starbucks he ever laid eyes on, during the very first car ride with her. The town was the same. But things were different. He couldn't put his finger on what it was. The season? The light? The people?

He only knew that it was best to go in. The Lieutenant had favoured this Starbucks, after all. 

And she sat there, in a booth. Abbie. The Lieutenant. 

Bless her. Bless him. His vision went blurry. She hadn't looked up yet, but when she did, he saw her smile through his tears. She rose from her seat and he went over to her quickly. He embraced her before she had time to say anything and she felt her low laugh vibrating through her and into him. She was real! 

His tears rolled into her hair and he buried his head in it, not caring if people looked. Her form, her scent, the texture of her hair, the sound of her laugh... Her. Real.

"You said you were dead," he managed to say in a shaky voice.

"Did I?" said her muffled voice against the lapel of his coat. "What a stupid thing to say." Even the humour was her. 

"But... is this real, Abbie?" he said and hugged her closer. Her arms clutched him tighter as well. 

"It is real, Crane. I promise you."

His tears rolled again and they stood there hugging for quite a while. They slowly relaxed and she looked up at him, still in his arms. 

"Let's sit down and order you something. The Chai Latte is even better in this dimension," she said with a smile. 

He nodded and produced an old fashioned handkerchief. In the corner of his eye, he noticed a couple he had often seen in town before, they sat in the corner, far enough for overhearing them. He bowed and turned a little to wipe his face. 

"It's... just been so long," Abbie explained to the couple and he could hear that she was a bit embarrassed. 

"Oh, we know, we know!" the lady said. "It's so nice to finally see Mr. Crane back in Sleepy Hollow!"

Crane exchanged a surprised look with Abbie, she merely nodded at him. 

She went and made the order and came back with one of his favourite pastries. He could only smile. He motioned to her to sit next to him in the booth and he took her hand. 

"So... I am the one who went away in... this dimension?"

"Mhmm," she confirmed. 

"Are there any other differences?" 

"Very few. You'll get a hang of it."

He had no doubt he would. He would gladly swim the Hudson River if she asked him to. He squeezed her hand. Good Lord, his eyes welled up again. And now, so did hers. He pulled her closer and put his arm around her. She gratefully leaned against his chest.

"How came you to be here?" he mumbled in a broken voice. 

"I... made some demands."

"Demands?"

"Mm, yeah. Turned out being dead didn't agree with me. Or rather, my soul thought is was a load of crap, having to find another body and basically cohabit with someone else. Unless..."

Did she blush? Her hands wiped her neck and she blinked.

"Unless?" he prodded mildly. 

"Unless I could cohabit in your body."

"Oohh!" was all he could say. She still didn't look up at him.

"Oh, indeed," Abbie replied. "But that was against the rules, and so on. So..."

"Sooo?" he filled in slowly, arching an eyebrow. 

"They sent me here," she finished and looked up at him. 

"And 'here' is every bit as much Sleepy Hollow as the one we knew?" 

His hand had taken to stroking her back. Hers replied with stroking his chest. 

"Yeah. Supernatural stuff, gateway to hell... the whole shebang." 

"No rest for the wicked," he mused.

"Nope. And the demons are pretty lively as well," she added with her own eyebrow rise. 

He grinned. 

"It's quite... incredible. Even by our standards, Lieutenant."

"Yep. But the universe is amazing like that."

"Indeed it is..." and he looked at her fondly. "Any universe with you in it is the one I want to be in."

She turned serious. Fear clutched his heart.

"Are you sure? There's no going back, if you stay Crane." 

"Oh, Abbie..." he whispered. "What is there for me in a world - "

"Without you," she filled in sweetly. "Yeah... turns out it's the same for me. What ever you do - "

"I do!" he filled in return and had to hug her again. She nestled against him and sighed into the opening of his shirt. Wasn't it all too good to be true?

"Forgive... my forward manner, dear Lieutenant..." he whispered, unable to let her go. 

"Nothing to forgive," she whispered back. "Actually..." she said slowly and he could swear that she was embarrassed again. 

Her fingers played with the seams near the ties of his shirt, ever so often brushing his bare skin. His heart was definitely working like it used to in the dimension they had come from. It was beating faster, as always when she was near. 

"You were saying, Abbie?" he asked with his lips on her hair, revelling in how it tickled and excited him. He slowly inhaled her scent. God in heaven. How had this miracle been granted them?

"Us... being like this... is sorta expected in this dimension," she said shyly and actually let her warm, flat palm rest on his exposed skin.

Oh, there was no force that could drag him back now. 

"Is that so...?" he slowly rumbled. 

She felt him smile against the side of his neck. 

"Mmmm," she confirmed and actually put a small kiss on that spot on his neck. 

"Abbie..." and there was pure wonder in his voice. 

"Yeah. Seems like some things happened differently to us when you came here. We, uh, we..." 

"...took another way?" 

"We did. Stuff... happened pretty much the same way and... apparently we worked it through. It's all in Grace Dixon's journal where I found my writings about it. Also; we beat Pandora together."

"How... fortuitous that there is always another way. You taught me that." 

"I rather think we taught each other, Ichabod Crane..." 

He could only gasp and hold her close. It was quite a lot to take in. Happiness, joy and love... it all battled to find a place within him and his formerly broken heart was larger than it had ever been. 

He struggled for words. Oh, the pure and unfettered joy of being alive with her! Had he ever felt something similar? All he could say was utterly mundane. 

"Shall I... take my Chai Latte to go?"

"Yeah. Let's go home," she said. "It's all there. Except we share the upstairs bedroom. All your things... magically appeared this morning," she said smiling slyly. Invitingly. 

"Oh, Lieutenant... I think this new world holds better wonders than the one I woke up to, three years ago. 'Tis all so new..."

"For me too. Don't forget that. Although, I got to make the plans. I hope you're OK with them."

He could only laugh happily and they rose together, getting his beveredge. 

"You laugh," she said when they walked out with his arm closely around her. "You're back in the exact same madness, save a few details," she stated. 

"Not details, my dearest Lieutenant. Your soul and you are here. And that's where I belong."

"It's the same for me, Crane," she said and turned to him. "It must be with you. Being a soul with or without a body - it will always need to be close to yours." 

They had stopped next to a large, blooming rose bush. Her eyes shone up to him. And that was when he finally could take her in his arms and kiss her like he had so often dreamt about, taste her warm, tender lips and melt together with her. Like souls, finally united.  

"My darling Abbie..." he whispered against her lips several eons later. 

"My Crane... My Ichabod," she claimed lovingly. "I honestly don't know if I could have taken it if you hadn't come. If you hadn't wanted to stay..." 

He merely smiled to her and cupped her soft cheeks.

"I will be as dead in that dimension as you are. As dead as I was in 1781. They will bury me at your side and write my name under yours on the stone. As it should have been. Defeated or victorious together. Joined as one, in all things. Always."


End file.
